Ernie Merrick - former Phoenix manager

The Phoenix two-nil win against the Mariners in Canberra was Ernie Merrick’s 100th win in the Hyundai A-League – becoming the first coach to reach triple figures in the A-League’s history.

Well Done Ernie - all is forgiven 

!

Steve-o gone a bit quiet.

Bloody awesome Ernie. 100 wins not out.

Ernie for PM

He can stand for Gareth Morgan's new party.

#opportunist

It's funny, I am looking back for your vociferous defence of Ernie during the 4 match losing streak and I just can't seem to find it anywhere...

To quote from the Blues Brothers. And dont come back until you have redeemed  yourselves . 

ahem

And now? Ernie needs to leave. He'll be lucky to get to 101 wins at this rate.

My opinion has always been that Merrick should be sacked if we don't make the top 6. We still have a chance of making the 6 so i wouldn't be sacking him yet.

I agree - but we seem to be short of ideas, and commitment.  We need a new Siggy to inspire us with a gutsy performance.

Sorry but setting the mark at top 6 in a league with this many teams is setting a below average standard.

6 goals from 8 games this season. Ernie's out of ideas and has been for a season and a half. It's a shame because the best football the Nix ever played was under him but I can't see how you can justify defending him now. Last year was the license saga but this year there's no excuses. This is his squad and his tactics and they are failing miserably.

Wait for ACFC to get back from Japan and offer Ramon the job.

Time for Watson to start and time for Krishna to give up taking penalties.

Maybe the license saga was all just a convenient excuse? 

I said judge him after ten games so far with better players results are same or worse. He's not shown anything without Nathan Burns over more than a season now. Time for a change

Point is "finishing" 6th should not be "making the playoffs" as of its some great achievement,  it's finishing in the bottom half... 

Merrick's average finish for completed seasons at the Nix is 7th...

I don't think Ernie should be sacked, I think he's done a lot for the club and is a great coach and man manager, especially with the younger players. He also has a lot of connections and the respect of players and other teams.

He does seem to be out of ideas though.

I'd like to see him move into more of a coaching role focusing on making sure we have a consistent club wide strategy and working with the younger players. He's also personable and good with the press so even a technical director role, the point is he is an asset outside of on field results and a lot of players rate him as a man manager and for his coaching skills (like Siggy).

With how ge has set up things off the field a DOF role would  be good. Whatever happens we definitely need a tactician somewhere because plan "B" should not be leaving it until late in the game to make things happen.

The first and most important metric Welnix should be focusing on is playoffs everything else should role off that.Maybe thats part of the problem to much effort being put into touchy feele crap and not enough on the playing side.

I also think that his primary role is getting the first team to win and he's not doing that. No amount of respect or goodwill makes up for that. It's harsh but that is the nature of pro sports.

To some extent you are right. A winning team will attract fans.

Ernie said in the media judge me in three seasons well how long has it been.He talks good game but his jokes are becoming a bore just like the football.He and Greenie don't have a clue at the moment in fact Greenie has never looked like he had a clue. Sack them both.

I'm a fan of Ernie and a defender of him but it is hard to ignore facts when emotion says 'but he is a great guy, historically good coach and done a bit for the club' so I'm not gonna get in people faces with my opinion on it.

What worries me a little is that when it was time for Ricki to go, more than a few of us ignored those signs and hindsight showed us that he should have gone earlier than he did. Is this a similar situation? Its hard to know but the facts are we are not winning and we have a disjointed team on the field.

One thing I would like to know a little more about but don't hear anything about is how the players are finding it under Ernie. We heard whispers of discontent under Ricki towards the end that got progressively louder but is anyone hearing the same under Ernie?

Well, how much the players like Ernie isn't really the point. All the word from the All Whites camp is that the players like Hudson, and we all know he needs sacking yesterday.

Be careful what you wish for. Ernie gone: Hudson in.

Well we know Siggy wished he'd been coached by him earlier in his career as it was the first time he was really coached on one side, and there were rumors that Rolly and he didn't get on on the other.

Would it make you happy if the players loved him? 

We are losing under his coaching, that is the point. 

Umm he shouldnt be sacked but should be moved to a technical director??

He isnt here for outside of the field results, he is here for ON the field results.

*Sack* Ernie

But, but, but... he and Gareth and the wives go to the theatre together...

You try to finish in the top 6 and build on that. We were poor last season and you probably don't go from the bottom to first. This season top 6 was the goal - next season it would be top 4.

fixed